Something has been missing in OBEY: a viable way to win as a snitch!Enter the watchtower! Watchtowers are a way that robo can reliably pay a snitch to stay put and watch for attackers. It simply drops the given autopay every 37 seconds. So now there is a way for a snitch to earn a reliable income, and possibly win if he plays his hand right.NOTE to newer players:
Sometimes new players get frustrated when a a different player plays as a snitch, making it seemingly impossible to subvert. There are ways to counter a snitch:

Obtain a pointer before making a break for it. If the snitch sees you and starts pointing you out, make your own arrows in wrong places to throw robo off.

Subvert from behind or the side of robo, grabbing items on your way to climb robo and drop down in front of the door for an instant subvert

Trick robo into thinking that the snitch is about to win, and get him to kill or remove/reduce the snitch’s autopay.

Whisper to the snitch that you will give him major cash if he lets you subvert (use /w to type a whisper)

Other significant changes include:

Robo’s HUD now displays what buttons you can press when you hover over anything

A/D no longer change autopay directly. You have to LOOK at the feedbox you want to change, or the watchtower. Hence, you can also set different autopay on different feedboxes if a map has more than 1.

Added Polish and Dutch languages

Permanent “trophies” that will show by your name if you place in tournaments! (past winners let the me or the mods know so we can mark you with some 🙂 )

Tons of bug fixes and improvements!

Comprehensive changelist (v .44r0):

added ‘watchtower’ map element. It can be used to pay snitches, and draw them to a location.

added context menus for robo to help know at all times what keys do what

added autopay can no longer just be set with a/d, robo must now look at feedbox/watchtower and press a/d to set it

added different feedboxes (and watchtowers) can now have their autopay set individually

So some big updates are just in!
Both the dropship code and the way sounds are handled in OBEY have been largely rewritten:

The main dropship change is that it no longer relies on the 30 second mark. IT CAN NOW LITERALLY BE CRASHED AT ANY TIME!
Yes, it is even possible to crash it just before it lands as it hovers over the drop area (this is very difficult to do, though). Take a look below:

The dropship monitor shows 3 things:
– The time until drop
– The chance of a normal delivery
– The “weight imbalance”

To be able to crash at any moment, the dropship ‘rolls a dice’ every 2 seconds to see if it should crash. The “weight imbalance” shows the chance to crash each tick. The ‘chance of normal delivery’ is that chance, calculated over how many ticks are left until landing.

Another big change to the dropship is that what the robot buys now spawns behind this area here:
The key to this is that anything that is behind that area counts towards the BALANCE of the ship! This area is not easy for the bunnies to reach, and therefore robo can try to counter imbalance caused by bunnies by buying more things!

Some other important changes include major optimizations in sound effects, and also that autopay can now be set up to 200¢ː

To help make clear how much a ¢ directive is worth, green ¢ː means 25-100, and cyan ¢ː means 125 – 200. Finally, their size helps distinguish their value (bigger = higher value);

Here is a comprehensive list of the changes:

The dropship can now be crashed at any time if it exists (no more 30 second time limit).
Items bought by robo are now protected behind a barrier, and serve to BALANCE the dropship.
increased weight of bunnies (was 2, now 4)
dropship monitor now displays “chance to successfully deliver” and “weight imbalance”.
robo’s dropship timer now turns red if the chance to deliver is less than 70% (used to be red for < 30 secs)
* removed text indicator for bunnies to know if dropship was purchased by robo.
* money directives can now be worth up to 200¢
* money directives now bigger if worth more, smaller if worth less.
* money directives that are green are worth between 25-100, cyan are worth 125-200
* feedbox can now be set to pay up to 200¢
* major rework & optimization to audio. Having many sounds play should have much less fps impact
* added roboWeightBias server setting, a weight modifier for things in the balance area (default .4)
* added bunnyWeight server setting. It is now possible to set the weight of bunnies (default 4).
* added dropshipChanceToCrashMod server setting. Higher number = more difficult to crash dropship (default 7000)
* slightly extended dropship time over the drop area by .5 secs
* getting subverted now plays a deactivation sfx
* fixed divide by zero bug in AI calculations
* updated loading screen tip related to crashing the ship
* numerous minor tweaks

After 3 months of intense coding…
I am happy to announce that the first version of OBEY with shippable AI is now in place! 😀
AI can use the robot, and a huge amount AI bugs have been fixed.
There is still more to do, but (unless serious bugs are found) I will now be moving on to issues directly related to getting more players into OBEY.

A special thanks to all of you who have helped me test the AI thus far ^_^

In this video I talk a little bit about the AI and how it works (sorry for poor stream quality):

Here’s me messing with the AI with JackBootedThug:

The great news is that there are no more tasks as difficult as the one just completed! It will be mostly polish and features to be added from now until full release (which I am speculating will be around March).

It only took me a couple minutes of playing OBEY before I realized it was something totally different to anything I had played before. Here I was, a helpless bunny being held at gunpoint by a giant robot with an itchy trigger finger. As a new player, I had no choice to do what I was told.

Following directions in a video game is nothing new, but these directions were being given to me by voice from another player. He was speaking in very stern tones. It made me feel a little like he was actually pointing a gun at me and needed me to put all my valuables in the bag, It was intense.

The view from “Robosaru”

Obey Developer Dan Dez answered some questions for me on the origins of the game’s unique emphasis on voice chat.

Q: I really enjoy the Voice Chat in OBEY. How important do you think it is to the game?

A: Well in my opinion it’s essential because of my own strategy in the game.

Everyone brings their own personality to the game. Some talk more than others, but voice is the easiest way for the player in the Robot to let the other players know what they want, and how not to get killed.

Q: Would you go as far as to say that voice chat is basically required to play OBEY?

A: I wouldn’t say that, but it is definitely recommended. Some players even use silence as a strategy.

I personally think that for the best experience, voice is required, but the game is totally playable without it.

Q: At what point in development did you realize voice communication would play such a big role is the game?

A: Very early.

We would play and talk on Skype from the very beginning.

That’s how the OBEY Skype group formed

It was the way I would play with the core group of players that were around at the time, but after I integrated voip into the game, Skype became obsolete and playing with strangers became much more convenient.

Q: To me, OBEY feels like a digital version of the kind of game we would play on the playground in school. Was that the goal?

A: Oh Yeah! Definitely!

To me that is the future of multiplayer games. There has to be a psychological element, or it will get boring.

What is the other player’s thinking? How can I anticipate and prevent their strategy? How many steps ahead can I go?

Without that, the game would get stale quickly. The psychological aspect is a big wildcard.

Maybe another good player has me in a real bind, but if I can convince the others to work with me or trick them somehow. I can really turn the game around.

OBEY is available as an early access title on Steam and has “Very Positive” user reviews.

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OBEY

OBEY is an asymmetrical multiplayer game. We've all played games where you send commands to teammates or AI units. OBEY instead puts you in the position to command your enemies (human opponents), and to be commanded by them. Players are always free to obey/disobey.